Let’s face it, there’s no good way for a politician to say to people who are controversial, marginal, infamous or flat-out flaky, “Please don’t support me.”

Is it really a positive when Donald Trump slaps you on the back? When Rush bloviates on your behalf? When Madonna declares that you’re her man?

Even when a celebrity actually knows what he or she is talking about, as in the case of actor George Clooney when he talks about Sudan, the very fact that they’re the face of a cause can undermine it. People who might otherwise listen won’t, simply because they recoil from certain celebrities.

When Angelina Jolie talks about child poverty, people scoff and make fun of her family because to do otherwise might require us to think about it.

Being a concerned citizen who also happens to be famous is tricky because while celebrities have a natural soapbox, we love to resent the people we idolize. When singer Kelly Clarkson tweeted that she liked presidential candidate and fellow Texan Ron Paul’s outspokenness, you would have thought she killed someone.

But celebrities don’t carry as much political juice as campaign operatives would sometimes like to believe. Not only don’t most people care that Will.I.am supports Obama, they don’t even know who — or what — he is.

From now on, Clint Eastwood likely will be remembered for arguing with an empty chair as much as he will for his stellar body of work.

Even as they glue themselves to the TV every night, many Americans have taken up the sport of blaming Hollywood for everything that has gone wrong since the fall of Eden.

There’s a deep suspicion that conservatives out there are persona non grata. But the same Hollywood that produced Honey Boo Boo also produced Ronald Reagan. It was Hollywood that put Reagan on his path to his destiny.

It would be disingenuous, however, to pretend that the industry doesn’t lean left. You need only to look at what gets past the censors nowadays.

Even so, it’s hardly reminiscent of the era when liberal writers, directors and actors literally risked their livelihoods by standing up for their civil rights during the communist witch hunts of the 1950s.

What’s more patriotic than that?

In Hollywood, the box office is the only office that really matters. So if you vote for or against a candidate simply based on what some celebrity thinks, you probably get the government you deserve.

Contact Charita Goshay at charita.goshay@cantonrep.com.

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